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Savannah Arts Academy's Mama Nelson dies

Karen Nelson, beloved Odyssey of the Mind coach and School Development Office staffer at Savannah Arts Academy, died Wednesday after an eight-year battle with cancer.

Her four children, Virginia Johnson and Kelly, Christopher and Barry Nelson, said their mother wanted her many students and co-workers to celebrate her life by making sure they live theirs to the fullest.

Karen Nelson was working as an accountant in 2001 when she discovered she had stage four metastatic breast cancer that had spread into her spine and over the top of her cranium. Doctors gave her just a few months to live.

"She said, 'absolutely not,'" Virginia Johnson recalled.

"She said something you can't put in the paper," Kelly Nelson added.

Their mother wasn't going to let cancer stop her from fulfillment, so she decided to change careers and start living. She became actively involved in the Savannah Theatre, City Lights Theatre and the Little Theatre of Savannah. Then she took a job in the School Development Office at Savannah Arts Academy, where she could help young people pursue their academic and artistic dreams. They called her Mama Nelson.

"She had cancer for eight years, and it never went into remission," Christopher Nelson said.

But she kept working, even when it wasn't easy.

"Her Odyssey of the Mind Team went to the World competition several times, and the year they won she almost wasn't able to make it," Kelly Nelson said. "It had gotten to the point that her goal was to go on the next school trip. It was like one small adventure after another."

When she had to slow down and check into hospice, former students who had gone on to college came to see her and share stories of their adventures, which she had inspired.

"It took her being diagnosed with cancer to find fulfillment in life," Kelly Nelson said. "She doesn't want anyone else to wait to that point."

A memorial for Karen Nelson will take place 6 p.m. Friday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 225 W. President St., Savannah. The family asks that donations be made to Hospice Savannah in lieu of flowers.